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Satan’s Imps As the Halloween season is upon us, many people are flocking to Salem, Massachusetts, home of all things witchy. Of course, we all know of that terrible time between February of 1692 and May of 1693 when 30 people of Salem were found guilty of witchcraft, 19 were hanged for their ‘crime’, and one man, Giles Corey, was crushed to death. Not too much later in time, in the Poquanticut neighborhood of Easton, odd supernatural events sometimes occurred, and some residents of the neighborhood were believed to be practitioners of the ‘black arts’. It was rumored that mill owner Nathan Selee was clairvoyant and that sometimes the imps of Satan ran his sawmill at night. On one occasion Mr. Selee was asked to read the fortune of a daughter of Stimson Williams, but on that particular day he declined to use his mysterious power. He later said to another man present that if she could see what the next week would bring her, she would not have asked to have her fortune told. She died the next week. (Chaffin). A friend and I visited the site of Nathan Selee’s sawmill, which had been out of use for 50 years at the time of Chaffin’s writing (1886). Of course, nothing is left except some walls and other stone ruins, but it was an interesting visit. As we walked into the woods from Mill Street the ground became wetter and eventually, we came upon a small pond and the Poquanticut Brook. The remains of the mill site are located between Mill Street and Possum Run Road.  Sign on Mill Street at the corner with Rockland Street.  Poquanticut Brook. Source of the waterpower for Nathan Selee’s mill.  Stonework associated with the mill. Pond on the right. Nathan Selee, who Chaffin called "an able and worthy man", had a sister, Thankful (Selee) Buck, who was reputed to be a witch. It’s said she spoke incantations at midnight with her daughters and may have done something like ‘scrying’ as she poured water from one pan to another. Scrying involves seeing the future in a reflective surface.
Whatever happened or didn’t happen, no serious harm seems to have been done though stories abound, and it appears a good number of the citizens of Easton were believers. The day we visited the mill site was sunny and benign but we both agreed that it might be a different story in the darkness and lonesomeness of a long ago October eve. Rough dirt roads, no streetlights, no house lights, neighbors few and far between. I can almost hear the old mill now, mysteriously running in the darkest of night. Anne Wooster Drury [email protected] A couple of corrections to previous newsletters: The Easton Garden Club’s Annual Greens & Holiday Sale, listed for December 7th, will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, not 8-4 as printed in the Fall Quarterly. From the last Biweekly, stone from Moyle’s Quarry was used to build homes in Sharon, not Stoughton, as printed. Times Change If you visit Borderland today and walk to the west, north, or east of the mansion you will come upon areas where tangles of stone walls thread through the woods in all directions. In many cases winding between large and imposing glacial boulders. It is interesting to think about the history of this piece of land. When the first European settlers arrived, it would have most likely been covered in old growth forest. “Borderland” got its name from the location of ancient tribal borders in addition to modern-day town lines. Native Americans may well have gathered or passed through here. Early Settlement. Sometime after marrying Priscilla Drake in 1723, Captain Ebenezer Tisdale moved to what would become 697 Mountain Street in Sharon. Captain Ebenezer and Priscilla Drake Tisdale were the grandparents of Colonel Israel Tisdale. By 1783, George and Betty Packard Wilbur had moved from Bridgewater and built the George Wilbur farmhouse and cattle barn at 251 Massapoag Avenue. Later. In 1851 a farm was built where the mansion now stands by Eliphalet Wilson, who raised cattle and farmed. Later, in 1886, Michael F. and Mary Dromey Currivan purchased the farm, to be historically named the Currivan Farm. They ran a Corn Crib on Massapoag Ave. In 1906 the family sold the farm to Oakes and Blanche Ames. The farmhouse was removed by the Ames family to build their new home but today the foundation of the old Currivan house can be seen at the northwest corner of the library and the edge of the rock garden. The Currivan Corn Crib used to be located where the visitor entrance from the parking lot. Here the present lives alongside the past.   Currivan Corn Crib and farmhouse, Easton Historical Society Oakes and Blanche raised mink, turkeys, pheasants, and cattle at Borderland, built a beautiful rock garden, a pool, created ponds and lawns, while leaving much of the property as it had come to them, littered with stone walls and rock formations.  Mansion at Borderland This one piece of land has transformed from glacier to tribal land to farmland to the country estate of Oakes and Blanche Ames, and today, a state park that can be enjoyed by all. Today. Borderland is a great place to hike, bike, cross-country ski, play disc golf, fish, kayak, and more. A place to trace the passage of time and the cycle of settlement.  Small colonial root cellar or possible indigenous stone chamber at Borderland.
Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter [email protected] |
Easton Historical Society and Museum
PO Box 3
80 Mechanic Street
North Easton, MA 02356
Tel: 508-238-7774
[email protected]